Physician assistants are health care workers licensed to practice medicine with oversight from a physician. The work they are allowed to handle depends on their training and experience, differing state laws and the scope of practice of the physician for which they work.

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Some of the most common duties of physician assistants are taking medical histories, performing physical examinations, ordering and analyzing lab tests and counseling patients on preventative health care measures. According to the American Academy of Physician Assistants, there are 42 states, including New York, in which PAs may legally write prescriptions.

Heidi Miller, program director of the physicians assistant program in the department of Allied Health Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, says the "physician assistants handle 75 to 80 percent of what general practitioners do." The one main exception, says Miller, is that they cannot perform surgery or practice independently.

There are more than 60 specialties in which physician assistants can work, such as neurosurgery, geriatrics and neonatology. An AAPA survey in 1997 indicated that 53 percent of PAs practice in a "primary care specialty." These include family/general medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/ gynecology. Thirty-one percent of respondents to the survey assist in surgery as part of their primary job.

Graduation from one of 107 accredited physician assistant programs, like that at RIT, is a must. Miller says RIT has approximately 100 students in its program. To qualify for many PA programs, students must already have two years of college and some health care experience.

Students receive a broad range of medical training, allowing them to move within the profession. "The physician assistant's profession is very flexible," says Miller.

PAs must also be certified in the state in which they work. Only graduates of accredited PA programs are eligible to sit for the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination. Miller says they also must receive 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and take a recertification exam every six years.

According to the AAPA, the median income for full-time PAs in 1997 was $61,021. Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project a more than 46 percent increase in the number of jobs from 1996 to 2006. That compares with the total number of U.S. jobs growing 14 percent during the same period.